Five Online Community Types: Which One Does Yours Fit Into?

When creating and building an online community it is important to put yourself in the members’ shoes and think about what he or she would want to gain from your community. Do they want knowledge? Connection? A quick laugh? In order to have an active and thriving group of members – or customers! - on your platform, it's best if your site fits into one of these five online community types.

1. Marketing a Business / Selling a Product

Boosting business is one of, if not THE, most popular reasons for starting an online community. Whether you choose LinkedIn, Facebook or a custom community platform like Follr, building an online presence for your business is a crucial – if not imperative – key to success. If your community fits this bill, consider spreading to other social networks to increase SEO opportunities.

2. Entertainment / Leisure

Pinterest and YouTube are top online social communities for a reason. How many minutes or hours of the day do you use blogs or other social networks to relax, zone-out or just take a short break from work? Use this fact to your advantage and create a community around people’s down time. Perhaps a favorite TV series, movie franchise or book could be the launch pad for your community Tip: If entertainment and/or leisure describe your online community type, post consistently and several times a day. These members will take any excuse to get distracted!

3. Personal Development

Another hot online community focus is self- help and improvement. In this news era where happiness and mental health are huge in the media, everyone is interested in bettering themselves. Offering a quick, easy and welcoming online group with which to do so is bound to have members flocking. Success.com is doing this so right.

4. Relationships / Connection

One reason for joining online communities is affirmation and praise. Members want to be heard, appreciated and noticed for their accomplishments and accolades. Online Communities for scholars, writers or more specific groups of achievers are great reasons to start or join and online community. Introduce members with similar interests and engage them often and directly.

5. Solutions

If I had a dollar for every time I looked online for a solution to a problem or a quick fix, I could probably retire. The Internet is so accessible that most people reach for the keyboard before the user manual. Establish an online community as an expert of something or be a question and answer platform for similar issues – parenting tips, smart phone fixes, or travel and vacation ideas. CafeMom.com nailed it.

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Bing Adds New Twitter-Based Search Features

As part of Bing’s partnership with Twitter, it is adding some new search features in order to help searchers more easily find relevant information on the social media platform.

The search works like an algorithm, using a variety of signals including retweets, freshness, verified status, and tweet quality, in order to display relevant tweets in the search results. This is a lot more intuitive than Twitter’s own search, where everything is time-based, although there is the option to search for "top" or "all" tweets, as well as display the search results based on only those you follow and those near you.

In Bing, when you search for a hashtag, it will display relevant tweets right in the search results with a small Twitter icon next to them. The results will show the tweet, who tweeted it, and how long ago it was tweeted, along with any relevant media included in the tweet, such as a link to a video with a small accompanying image.

You can also now search for people via their Twitter handle - do a search for @name and it will bring up relevant Twitter accounts. It does appear that the Twitter accounts must be either verified or have a high number of followers in order to be displayed in the drop-down when the user is searching for a username with the @.

When searching for a handle, Bing will also display whether the user is verified or not, which can help those who are trying to find a well-known person’s Twitter account, especially for those that have multiple fan Twitter accounts or parody accounts.

Bing is also now including popular content tweeted about a particular person in its search results, showing the content that is most-shared under a "Tweeted About" section in the results.

(via)

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Turning Social User Generated Content into Sales

Like any good content marketer, you are consistently engaging your social media followers through contests, conversation-sparking posts, reader polls, and more. And while engagement is its own reward and all, you might still find yourself wondering how you can translate those interactions into sales for your business.

If you’ve mastered the art of getting your audience to engage with your brand on social media, you’re already headed in the right direction. When someone enters a photo contest, posts a video of themselves using your product, answers a poll, comments on their experience with your brand, etc., they are creating content for you. The next step is figuring out what you’re going to do about it.

According to the infographic below from SparkReel, 40% of consumers are seeking out user generated content of some kind before making a purchase. That’s where all your social engagements come in. Your job is to guide the potential customers out there to the content that your loyal followers have generated. Whether it’s creating a slideshow of entries from a photo contest, or highlighting social customer reviews in your web store, the possible uses of user generated content are endless. Get creative, and tell us what you came up with in the comments below!

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6 Tips to Boost Your Twitter Conversations

1. Make Your Twitter Profile Inviting

When people are looking for your brand on Twitter, the first thing they’ll do is search for you, and check out your profile. If you want more followers, this is their first stop, so make it pop!

SpareFoot is an example of a Twitter profile done right. They’ve humanized their brand by showing employees having fun in their creative office space.

 

Are your Twitter pictures and bio compelling enough to follow?

If you’re not sure, give it a quick test. Is your bio concise and clear about your brand’s purpose? Does it include keywords that flow naturally in the description? Do your background and profile picture convey the message you want associated with your brand?

You can include elements that encourage an emotional connection with any audience. What those elements are will depend on your niche.

Pro Tip: Clear out all of the clutter! Avoid using too many hashtags and don’t overdo it with links and text.

2. Add Enticing Visual Content

Ninety percent of information transferred through the brain is visual. If you want your messages to get attention, include photos and videos with your tweets as often as possible.

When Twitter added in-stream previews of images, it increased overall engagement. The more you invest in visual content, the more retweets, favorites and click-throughs you’ll see.

A study by Buffer found that tweets with images get 150% more interaction.

In the example below, Sephora used calculated composition to include as much information as possible. A single picture shares a discount and product examples, as well as promotes a weekly feature.

Pro Tip: Remember that images use up about 26 of your 140 characters. Make adjustments to your tweets as necessary.

3. Keep Tweets Short and Simple

Clear messages demand simplicity.

Some businesses try to squeeze as much text as possible into their tweets. The result? Their message isn’t properly conveyed. If you waste words, you’ll probably waste followers too.

Twitter’s best practices guide cites a report by Buddy Media that found that the ideal tweet is 100 characters or fewer.

 

Pro Tip: Use medium-length tweets to get a 17% higher engagement rate.

4. Insert Retweetable Words

Twitter only gives you 140 characters to capture your audience’s attention and convince them to jump into your conversation. Since your audience is already overloaded with social updates, the right words can make or break that connection.

To find those power words, Dan Zarella from HubSpot analyzed the top 10,000 most retweeted tweets. He found 20 words that have the most potential for capturing your audience’s attention and turning your tweets into actions.

Pro Tip: Want to get the most out of your tweets? Add please, free, check out, how to or 10 to your tweets—those are a few of the top words Dan found to be most effective.

5. Ask Your Audience Questions

If you want to get people talking, ask them about themselves. Twitter users love to share their opinions, so why not give them a chance to express their feelings?

To keep things focused, stick to questions related to your niche. If your company sells shoes, ask your followers about the last pair of shoes they bought.

In the example above, Steve Madden stretched that advice a little bit. They posted a question about Saturday night, but paired it with a fabulous outfit featuring their shoes. “Who’s ready for Saturday night?” gets the conversation going while highlighting the product.

No matter how big or small your audience is, thank everyone who made the effort to answer your question. Show that there are real people behind your Twitter account and address everyone personally.

Pro Tip: Keep your questions conversational. Don’t talk to your followers like a robot, but like a friend.

6. Share Curated Content

Excellent content will improve your engagement, but that doesn’t mean you have to dedicate all of your time creating it from scratch.

Collect and share interesting content from other sites with your audience. Talk about it from your point of view, apply a consistent voice and show that you’re an expert in your field.

Curated content can be just as valuable as original content. In the example below, Wells Fargo tweets out a mix of original content and valuable links from other sites. They identify with their audience’s needs and find content that addresses those needs.

Pro Tip: Share a mix of curated links and information along with original tweets to make you the go-to brand for your niche.

Some Parting Thoughts

Twitter can be a struggle for any business, big or small. Getting back to basics can help you increase your follower count and overall interactions.

One of your first steps is creating an attention-worthy profile with compelling imagery. Anyone who stumbles across it should be able to get a sense of your company’s culture and products or services.

You may feel like you need to update your stream all of the time to keep up visibility, but if you don’t have a strong message, don’t tweet. Your followers won’t pay attention if your tweets lack authenticity and power.

Instead, focus on sharing intriguing visual content and stories that spark Twitter conversations around your brand or niche.

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Twitter Reveals Which Tweets Get the Most Engagement [Study]

We’ve seen third-party studies on what makes a tweet succeed, like this one, for example. But Twitter went ahead and did a study of its own, looking at more than 2 million tweets from verified accounts in the United States. What it found was that adding video, links and photos all result in “an impressive boost in the number of retweets,” Twitter said.

Twitter segmented the results by sectors like TV, news, government and politics, sports, and music; not every sector showed the same results.

Overall, the most effective tweet components across all verified accounts were:

• Photos, which averaged a 35 percent boost in retweets.
• Videos, which got a 28 percent boost.
• Quotes, which received a 19 percent boost in retweets.
• A number or stat, which received a 17 percent bump in retweets.
• Hashtags, which garnered a 16 percent boost.

Let's look at a couple sectors. For the news segment, photos garnered the most retweets.

What this data means, said Twitter, is if a journalist normally gets an average of 100 retweets per post, for example, a photo could drive that average to 127 retweets per tweet.

Twitter pointed to examples of how news organizations leverage images in their tweets, like during breaking news events or when journalists connect with their audience in interestng ways, like this:

When it came to the TV industry, not surprisingly, quotes were the main driver of retweets, as fans engaged with their favorite TV personalities via Twitter. 

What about those in government and politics? From Twitter:

Photos were more effective for verified users in government and politics than in any other area, with a significant bump in Retweets — 62 percent higher than they would expect to receive normally. Let’s say @politician normally gets an average of 100 Retweets per post. A photo would see them getting an average of 162 per Tweet.

Twitter illustrated how some political figures were getting creative with their images:

There’s more data and tips in Twitter’s study; check out the music category or sports category while you’re in there. 

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The Importance of Creating Human Connections with Your Brand in Social Media

One of the best things about social media is that people are becoming more real, revealing more about themselves. People are showing more courage in putting themselves out there - sure, some guy you went to school with might judge you for sharing your feelings, but there are others with whom your opinions will resonate, and those are the people you really want to connect with. Social media facilitates better connections with likeminded folk, leading to the creation of online communities that foster encouragement, creativity and genuine relationships. It’s really great to see, really heartening to see people who might have felt out of place in the world finding others who feel the same way.

It’s a simple, inspiring summary that’s been rightfully praised by many in the industry. It underlines that community spirit, that tangible sense of belonging that people are finding in the social media landscape. Inspiring is the best word for it, and I applaud Bryan for his clarity.

What does this mean for business?

Bryan’s statement really captures the mood around social media and how it should be used by brands. There’s a clear shift away from advertising and selling and a move towards creating genuine connections with people. The emphasis on content is largely due to it being a way to create human connections, an opportunity to present who you are as a company, as opposed to what you do. It’s an exciting time to be involved as the opportunities for creating real, meaningful relationships are there, waiting, and the audience is looking for engagement. You just have to reach out to them, understand them, and, ideally, contribute to their world. The opportunity to take up a place of trust and service has never been better, it’s now up to businesses to take it.

So how do you do it?

Listening. This is emphasised by every social media expert in every post and every publication. You need to learn what your customers want, listen to what they’re after, then be responsive to their needs. You have access to more consumer data than ever before, and most of its happening in day to day discussions, right now - conversations that you can tap into and take notes from. You need to listen, but more than that, you need to hear what’s being said and absorb that information into your processes.

Brands need to be more human

Be real, be genuine. Be adventurous with your messaging. You know your target audience - ideally, you are amongst them yourself - so if you’re taking a risk and putting yourself out there, think about what would resonate with you. What would you respond to as a target consumer? You have the data, the platforms, the means - you can find likeminded, or better ‘like-wanted’, folk that will connect with your brand identity. You just have to establish what that identity is.

Be about people

What’s the thing that people always say when they leave a company? ‘The best thing about working here was the people’. Social media gives you a chance to make all businesses about the people. Obviously, your product still needs to be great, but that inner-company camaraderie can be spread further, creating a more collaborative relationship between your business and your clients. People want to be part of a community, to feel like they belong. Social media gives you the chance to show that they belong with you.

It’s not about consumers, it’s not about clients. It’s about people. Listening, engaging, creating real connections. H2H.

They’re out there now, talking to each other, establishing likeminded communities. All you have to do is go meet them.

(VIA)

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5 Lessons from Instagram Influencers

When Instagram was bought by Facebook last year, it signalled that the social network had graduated from indie to the big leagues—and it definitely has. Since being bought, Instagram has grown by more than 600 percent, adding over 120 million monthly active users to its network. Its 150 million monthly active users may be a drop in the ocean compared to Facebook’s 1.19 billion monthly active users, but it’s substantial nevertheless.

Like Facebook, its maturity means that more and more brands have jumped on board. These days, it seems every brand, band and brat is trying to tap into the Instagram gold mine.

But why?

A key reason is that more than any other major social network (barring Pinterest), Instagram functions as an image-based discovery network. Like those shoes? Discover more just like them by browsing hashtags. Love that image? Find similar ones by browsing/stalking the account holder’s follow list. As a consumer, the ability to find and curate based on a quick glance and snap judgement of a few pictures is enticing and exciting.

Secondly, following brands and people is a far less involved and committed process: no long newsfeeds and updates to follow, just a single picture and on to the next one. Because you can easily unfollow an account that no longer meets your needs, there’s no hesitation when it comes to adding new ones on your list.

Instagram has always been a mobile first network. Unlike other social networks that have adopted mobile, Instagram was born in it and moulded by it. The entire Instagram experience has been optimized for mobiles; those little square photos make the most sense on a mobile screen. With adoption and time spent on smartphones on the up and up, Instagram and other applications and networks which have come from mobile will increasingly become the norm.

Learn from the best

Of course, knowing why Instagram has been successful is only half of the picture. The key piece of the puzzle is really understanding how to leverage the platform, and no one does that better than the Internet influencer. The online blogger’s priority is to maintain their brand and voice in a cluttered space, consistently produce great content and showcase products when they need to. So here’s what you can learn from some of Instagram’s top influencers:

1. Make an impression: Instagram is clearly all about imagery. There’s space for spontaneous photos, but Instagram influencers know that spur-of-the-moment photos need to be mixed in with planned, stylized images. @khiesti (129,000 followers) produces whimsical paper drawings, which average more than 12,000 likes. @mattfrench (190,000 followers) shares muted landscapes. Aimee Song of  (1.13 million followers) mixes everyday photos with stylized photoshoots. It’s not always about behind-the-scenes or the spontaneous and blurry shot. Take time to create your Instagram and you’ll reap the rewards.

2. Have a consistent voice: @garypeppergirl (over 700,000 followers) has always used her blog to showcase her outfits amongst exotic and picturesque backdrops. Her brand revolves around fashion styling and her Instagram is no different. She uses it to effectively drive traffic to her blog because blog posts and Instagram photos work in conjunction. @kimkardashian, no surprises here, shares photos of herself with her 11.3million followers. @joythebaker (86,400 followers) complements her blog posts with Instagrams of rustic food shots and scenes. A quick scan of your profile should tell a consistent story about you and the content users can expect in their newsfeed.

3. Personality first: Did you know there are more than 35 million selfies on Instagram? That’s over 87 million pictures associated with #me.  Clearly, this is a social network based on personality (or one’s self if we’re being cynical). In fact 9 out of the top 10 Instagram accounts are owned by people, and the lone brand account is Instagram. There’s a reason why Oscar de la Renta’s Instagram account, @oscarprgirl (240, 800 followers) is run by their PR girl who instils the brand with her personality. Successful Instagrammers ensure the pictures they take, even if promotional, are true to their voice. @theglamourai (79,000 followers) is a master at promoting brands whilst making you feel like they are part of her day-to-day life.

4. The art of revenue: Another skill that Instagram influencers master is product promotion and new ways of retailing. Besides editorial content and tagging brands, @songdani (202,800 followers) uses Instagram to effectively drive purchases. Because Instagram does not yet allow for linking off the app, other than in the profile, she works with a mobile partner that uses SMS to provide links to products. See it in action:http://instagram.com/p/gXJC2fGG-K/ . She also consistently tags brands she wears and uses the ability to tag a friend in a photo to highlight where her items come from.

Other clever tactics I’ve seen have been to include the SKU (stock keeping unit) of the product, so consumers can quickly search for it on e-commerce sites, making the link in your profile link directly to the shop, or creating Instagram only vouchers.

5. Optimize to appear on the Explore Page: The holy grail of every Instagram is the Explore Page, get on there and you can guarantee a boost to your followers. Arriving there is the challenge. Like Google’s algorithm, Instagram has a “special formula” that determines which pictures are featured on the Explore page. Here are a few factors which drive it: how many likes you get in the first 30 minutes to 1 hour of your picture being posted (the more followers you have the more likes you’ll need), how many likes you gain from other influencers, and the topic of your photo. Test to see which photos and topics garner likes and comments. You might be tempted to #hashtageverything but resist the temptation to over hashtag, as it reduces your chances of it appearing on the Explore Page. And when in doubt think cats, food, fashion and children, all favorites of the Instagram community.

Ultimately, Instagram is about sharing photos about yourself or your brand to capture the imaginations of others. The power of an image to move, connect, and persuade us cannot be denied—after all a picture is worth a thousand words.

(VIA)

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